“Today’s avant-garde will be tomorrow’s pop.” Never such a precise sentence to indicate the content of one of the most transcendent and otherworldly albums of the 90s.
Post psychedelia and dream post rock
The first time I lost myself listening to music was Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. I was 16 years old and the song that triggered the pollution was “To Here Knows When.” Months later, the next time happened to me with Seefeel’s “Polyfusion” and I knew that the work of my lady in love had taken effect, not counting the ad hoc music built on the basis of female voices and exciting atmospheres.
When I heard Seefeel in 1993, its voluptuousness immediately enchanted me.. In spite of my shoegazer brothers, I promoted them among the brotherhood of the time and when we found out that Mark Clifford remixed Cocteau Twins, I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. The first thing I heard from them was Polyfusia, which I had recorded in Lenti’s store. Later, Correbala kindly gave me his copy of Quique, which had been ordered from the same place, with the intention of moving pirates in La Colmena.
“Quique attracted a lot of attention from both fans and the press. There was a lot of expectation with our second album, and I didn’t want to make a Quique 2. It was important to do something different, so Succour emerged as Quique‘s very dark brother or sister. Furthermore, it was recorded at a time when I was personally feeling very overwhelmed by everything and I think that influenced the sound.” — Mark Clifford (Seefeel / Disjecta)
Too much guitar for the techno kids and too much electronic for the indie kids, or so they said everywhere. Too suitable for me. They had everything. Mountain ranges of guitars, loops, couplings, voices like those of mermaids and galactic nymphs—divine Sarah Peacock—post-psychedelic basses, intelligent percussions. 1993’s non plus ultra in the realms of dream pop and shoegaze onslaught. The most amazing thing was that in Lima, Peru we enjoyed it in real time. Yes, when it took effort to get music and you valued it more than asses, chelas and other trinkets.
“Quique” is a teacher of uncertain meaning who introduces oceans of sound like vibrational bees awakening to the aura after the fifth end of the world, year 500,000. “Imperial,” “Industrious,” “Charlotte’s Mouth,” “Polyfusion,” “Filter Dub,” “Climactic Phase No.3.” Every track would be single of the year if the man were more than a sad imitation of what he once was, before history. “Man is a beggar when he reflects and a God when he dreams.”
The post-hippie, post-psychedelic and post-rocker 90’s were the last cry of the planetary meta-musical advance. Quique by Seefeel does not allow me to hide this harsh reality from you. Since then everything has been going backwards. Capitalism absorbed the internet and everything else and here we are, battling neo-fascism, machirulos and deniers. And if the following pseudo-winters get warmer, those of us who gave our lives for music and its ideals will have the firmament of reward. See and feel (that) the world has already been.
Reprinted with permission (Vanguardia Peruana)
Quique is available on Too Pure.
